Men and women of all ages are enjoying the game of golf these days. Golf is a game to hit the ball having a diameter of about 4 cm (centimeter) on the ground with a lesser number of strokes to put the ball in a hole or cup on the ground (green).
The game of golf can be roughly classified into a process of placing the ball onto a green where a hole is provided, and a process of putting for hitting the ball on the green with a putter to bring the ball into the hole.
The practice of putting purports to put the ball, or a spherical objected placed on the ground into a hall. The putting is also enjoyed for its own sake as recreation. This invention is directed to a game apparatus which is similar to a golf putter, although it is not limited to the putter. However, for the convenience of explanation, the following description is made for the case where the game apparatus is applied to the golf putting.
When a player practices putting or plays putting as recreation, the player has to place balls on the ground (placement process). Hence, in order to practice putting ten (10) times, for example, the player has to place the ball ten times. To repeat such a simple routine of placing the ball is boring and frustrating. Moreover, bending down to place a ball on the ground may pose significant difficulty for an elderly player or a player with a back pain. When a player practices putting with many balls, the player has to carry a container storing many balls such as a bag or a basket.
Thus, it is desired to achieve means for easily and automatically placing the balls on the ground without a player's action to bend over the ground to place the balls. A possible apparatus to achieve this objective can be classified into two, an apparatus mounting a spherical object drop mechanism, i.e., a ball to a club, and an apparatus having a spherical object drop mechanism separately from the golf club.
Some users prefer to use a separate ball drop mechanism and shuns the idea of mounting the drop mechanism to the golf club due to the affect to the user's sense by the addition of the drop mechanism. Others may prefer an drop mechanism attached to a golf club. Thus, there is a need to accommodate many types of users. Moreover, since balls must be picked to contiguously play or practice, there is a need to allow the user to easily pick the balls on the ground.